The organization of society is based on institutions constituted by rules that are negotiated in complex social processes. Rules can be enforced coercively (by force or law) but also consensually (by cultural norms, common sense, ideologies that are accepted, internalized, and may become perceived and felt as truth). Either way power and power relations are paramount for the distinct configurations of rules at play. One central institution in neoliberal society is competition. In the neoliberal era, (market) competition regulates the allocation of resources, and its rules are said to ensure a fair outcome by equalizing opportunities. As part of the interdisciplinary research project EIROC1 we focus on the rules of competition to facilitate interdisciplinary discussions; this also allows us to question the equalizing nature of competition not least in the current state of an unequal, globalized society, looking at global exchange relationships, the European Unions way to sustainability and access to housing. In these contexts and more generally, we want to ask: What is defined as a rule and how does this definition affect outcomes? Who makes the (market) rules? How do we need to rethink our understanding of rules and institutions? We invite scholars from different disciplines working on these questions to present at our workshop. We particularly invite contributions from critical (social) theories (e.g. feminist theory, dependency framework, state and regulation-theoretical approaches) and empirical contributions that address the complexity of how power structures operate within institutions at micro, meso and macro levels that often seem intangible. The workshop aims to discuss how these insights can be translated into a framework for the interdisciplinary study of rules sensitive to this complexity of power structures. To do so, we invite three experts in the field of critical competition research to facilitate the workshop: Carina Altreiter (Austrian Chamber of Labour, Vienna), Claudius Gräbner-Radkowitsch (Europa University Flensburg) and Stephan Pühringer (University of Linz) will provide participants with valuable feedback.